I’ve seen people on youtube using deck images for bazzite or steamos on desktop and it gave me a couple questions.
Are there features that only the deck images have? Are there reasons not to?
I was wondering bc the deck UI seems pretty cool, and I don’t really know anything about it. Just curious is all
I use Bazzite on my desktop PC with Steam mode enabled. What are your questions?
The deck version will only work if you have an AMD GPU, so no nVidia or Intel currently keep that in mind, but I can see the benefit if its a HTPC style console, the game mode seems to be a little more robust over big picture mode, windows losing focus and various odd full screen and controller issues can be annoying with the desktop still loaded in the background, the full game mode is quite solid in this regard, but if its a desktop PC first, Id stick with the standard Bazzite OS and use Big Picture Mode instead.
I have several HTPC’s/Open Source Game Consoles and I would definitely prefer to us the full Deck OS on them, but unfortunately they are both nVidia machines and Bazzite definitely wont run Gamescope, same for Nobara and HoloISO.
I saw that there is an in-game overlay that lets you adjust settings related to performance. Is that usable in big-picture mode on a desktop image?
Like there’s Shift+Tab to open the steam overlay but isn’t there another set up options for performance?
Yes, those additional Deck menus are not available, its one of the reasons I want the full game mode on my HTPC’s, as you get access to additional features from a controller.
Besides gaming, I mostly use my computer for word processing and web browsing. Are there any functional disadvantages to using the deck image?
Like, will Spotify not play in the background or anything weird like that?
Updates are no longer automatic and multi-tasking in Steam Gaming Mode isn’t as good as a proper desktop environment like KDE Plasma or GNOME.
When you switch to the deck full game mode, I believe desktop apps will close, best way to find out though is to try it, I don’t know myself as I only use Bazzite for gaming, I have a separate machine with a suitable OS for office based tasks.
Yeah all desktop applications in the Desktop Mode session will close between switching, but you can add Spotify as a non-Steam game and have it play in Steam Gaming Mode. I still don’t recommend trying to run word processors in it since multi-tasking is not a fun time.
Oh yea, and another downside that may not affect most people but you cannot run multiple users with the -deck images.
I assume this was Steam’s intention, to have all available resources focus on a single task/game, thus giving you the best gaming experience they can offer, specially on the limited compute available on a Steam Deck.
Yup, its all intentional. I just wanted to point out the downside of expecting to navigate the gamescope-session and expect it to behave like a regular desktop. desktop mode is nice for covering that stuff though.
ctrl+1 and ctrl+2 give the left and right steam overlays in Deck mode. There are shortcuts on controller, too, on my Xbox pad it’s Xbox+A for the right menu and just the Xbox button for the left menu.
I’ll also note that on my Ryzen 5 5600 + RX5700XT home theatre PC, the ctrl + 1 for steam button and ctrl + 2 for quick settings works as well. Looks like the new N64 8bitdo controller, their Xbox one and my first party PS5 controller are working fine. Everything should work out fine if you run it on your desktop.
I thought it was Shift + Tab for the left overlay. Very sneaky Valve.